Tag: Greek exit from the euro

An article in today’s Times on Greek VAT on hospitality services entiled ‘Tourists will pay the price the Greek surrender on VAT’ reports that the rate of VAT on restaurants in Greece is likely to increase from 13% to 23%, while for hotels the rate will increase from 6.5% to 23% as part of a …

“The only relevant test of the validity of an hypothesis is comparison of its prediction with experience.” [Milton Friedman “The Methodology of Positive Economics” (1953)]. Five predictions of The Golden Guinea: Prediction 1: The Euro will inflict great economic damage on the nations that adopt it. “The case put by supporters of the Euro for …

Thirty years ago, my book The Age of illusions (1983) contained an exposition of the long waves in economic life, first identified by the Russian economist Nikolai Kondratieff during the 1920s. Kondratieff’s thesis was that long waves lasting approximately half a century each occur in the economic activity of capitalist economies. These waves have two …

We’re caught in a trap I can’t walk out – Because I love you too much baby. Elvis singing an anguished melody to a beloved partner with whom he is entangled in a difficult relationship? Or Mario Draghi serenading the euro? I was reminded about the lyrics of the classic Number One by an …